1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for controlling communications network based media sessions and, more particularly, to management and control of interactive media sessions.
2. Description of Related Art
Management and control of an interactive media session conducted in a communications network, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) based media session, may be accomplished using various known protocols and techniques. These techniques include communicating voice, data and tones over a packet switched network, such as the Internet, using any number of packet based communication approaches (e.g., transmission-control protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)). In such approaches, audio information (e.g. voice and tones) is typically communicated using known voice over IP (VoIP) approaches, which typically communicate audio information in a digital, compressed format using a packet switched network communication protocol. Such techniques may be used, for example, by Internet telephony applications or by interactive-voice-response units (IVRUs), such as voice-mail servers.
Such techniques may be employed to execute various media transactions, such as retrieving voice mail messages, conducting banking transactions, making airline flight reservations, etc. Such transactions may be carried out over an interactive media session using, for example, the techniques mentioned above. Typically, an interactive media session (such as a real-time protocol (RTP) session) is established, a single transaction is conducted and the interactive media session is torn down, or closed. Each successive media transaction includes renegotiating, for example, and RTP session, even though the user may perceive the sequence as a single session (e.g., a single call to the user's bank), such as is described further below. The RTP standard is described in Internet Engineering Task Force document RFC 1889, which is known to those working in this area and is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Using current approaches to accomplish a sequence of different media transactions, an end user contacts a media server, which may be, for example, a voice mail sever, a banking transaction server, or an airline reservation sever, where these servers typically comprise a general purpose, or special purpose computing platform. In a typical communications network the user may contact the media server via an application server. In this context, an application server may act as network access server (e.g., a gateway) for connecting an end user device with the media server. Such situations are described in further detail hereinafter.
In the context of the user contacting a media server to conduct banking transactions, the following sequence may take place using current techniques. A message is sent to the media sever by an end-user device, the media server then negotiates communications parameters for the media session with an application server and/or the end user device. Once the media session is established, the media server may then, for example, transmit an audio stream to the user, prompting the user to enter an account number and a personal identification number. The user may then enter this information and the media server may communicate the user's account balance information. After this transaction is complete, the media session is closed.
If, for example, the end user desires to transfer money from one account to another (e.g. conduct another media transaction), a second media session is then opened in the same fashion as described above. Such an approach has certain disadvantages. For example, because a new media session is established for each transaction, the end user may experience skipping or clipping in the media streams that are part of the transactions due to the need to renegotiate communications parameters for each transaction. Also, the user may experience inconsistent quality of service. Such inconsistent quality of service results from the fact that the same logical and/or physical communication path would typically not be used for subsequent transactions. In this respect, different physical devices (such as physical network connections) may be used for each different media transaction, thus resulting in potentially differing quality of service for each media transaction. Such disadvantages may result in the user having to repeat one or more transactions due to media information being lost due to such clipping, skipping or inconsistent quality of service. Based on the foregoing, alternative approaches for managing and/or controlling interactive media sessions are desirable.